Press release

Cequence Security Expands Its Security Platform with CQ appFirewall

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Sponsored by Businesswire

Cequence Security, a provider of innovative application security
solutions for today’s hyper-connected enterprises, today announced it
has expanded the capabilities of its Application Security Platform with
a new security module – CQ appFirewall. This new module will leverage
the intelligence of CQAI, the patented analytics engine within the
platform, to automatically detect and defend against attacks that
exploit known and unknown application vulnerabilities – and even
eliminate the need for WAF signatures.

The Cequence Application Security Platform, originally launched in
November 2018 with CQ botDefense, leverages the application intelligence
generated by CQAI to detect and defend against automated attacks that
appear to be legitimate as they target the application business logic
itself. CQ appFirewall takes full advantage of the same application
intelligence to provide non-stop security, even with continuous
application updates and modifications by DevOps teams. CQ appFirewall
will complement CQ botDefense to deliver comprehensive application
security that is effectively “baked in” to the web, mobile, and
API-based application tier.

“We actually solved the hardest security problem first, stopping
malicious bot attacks with our initial module, CQ botDefense,” said
Ameya Talwalkar, Chief Product Officer and co-founder of Cequence
Security. “With CQ appFirewall, we have significantly extended the
platform’s value with innovations that overcome the inherent security
limitations of traditional WAFs. When customers deploy both security
modules, the platform will not only prevent attacks targeting their web,
mobile, and API-based applications, it will also help eliminate unwanted
application traffic on their network.”

CQ appFirewall includes support for OWASP Top 10 and PCI DSS Section
6.6, which address basic vulnerability protection and compliance
requirements that customers expect from their WAF. But the new Cequence
Security module goes well beyond that with several important innovations:

  • Discover – Automatic discovery of all web, mobile, and
    API-based applications that could be targeted with targeted attacks
    that exploit application vulnerabilities. This eliminates the need to
    continually monitor and update traditional application and threat
    signatures. In addition, it provides discovery and lockdown of
    misconfigured applications that should not be exposed to the Internet.
  • Detect – Leverages the multi-dimensional analysis of CQAI to
    fully understand normal application transaction, also known as
    syntactic behavior, and creates a unique profile between external
    clients and the customer’s web, mobile, and API-based applications.
    Any abnormal transactions – including those targeting zero-day
    vulnerabilities – are automatically detected and blocked, without the
    need to create a new WAF signature.
  • Defend – In addition to block and alert as response options, CQ
    appFirewall allows customers to defend against attacks using
    rate-limiting, geo-fencing, and deception techniques that convinces
    the bad actor the attack was successful, when in fact it wasn’t.

The need for these advanced features was recently validated in a report
Cequence Security published with Ponemon Institute and based on data
collected from WAF users in nearly 600 U.S. organizations. “The research
clearly reveals WAF dissatisfaction in three areas,” said Dr. Larry
Ponemon, chairman and founder of Ponemon Institute. “First,
organizations are frustrated that so many attacks are bypassing their
WAFs and compromising business-critical applications. In addition,
they’re experiencing the pain of continuous, time-consuming WAF
configuration and administration tasks. Lastly, they’re dealing with
significant annual costs associated with WAF ownership and staffing.”

“We’ve definitely addressed the security concerns raised in that
report,” said Shreyans Mehta, CTO and co-founder of Cequence Security.
“In addition, by combining AI-driven bot defense and application
firewall capabilities within the same platform and a single pane of
glass for management, we’re enabling our customers to reduce
architectural complexity and improve staff productivity. And the open
architecture of the platform makes it easy to share relevant data with
other security tools, such as SIEMs or anti-fraud systems.”

A recent report from Gartner states: “Considering the range of exploits
and abuse that can occur with web and mobile applications and web APIs,
technical professionals must leverage a mix of externalized security
controls to deliver appropriate protection and alleviate burdens to
development staff.” (Report available to Gartner subscribers: Protecting
Web Applications and APIs From Exploits and Abuse
, Frank Catucci,
Michael Isbitski and Ramon Krikken, April 24, 2019)

Pricing and Availability

The CQ appFirewall solution includes the underlying platform, CQAI
analytics engine, CQ Insight management application, and CQ Connect for
sharing information. The annual subscription price is based on the
number of transactions processed by the solution, which can vary
significantly by customer. Controlled release and beta testing begin
next month, with general availability in Q4 2019. Please contact
Cequence Security for more details.

About Cequence Security

Cequence Security is a venture-backed cybersecurity software company
founded in 2015 and based in Sunnyvale, CA. Its mission is to transform
application security by consolidating multiple innovative security
functions within an open, AI-powered software platform that protects
customers’ web, mobile, and API-based applications – and supports
today’s cloud-native, container-based application architectures. The
company is led by industry veterans that previously held leadership
positions at Palo Alto Networks and Symantec. Customers include F500
organizations across multiple vertical markets, and the solution has
earned multiple industry accolades, including 2018 Gartner Cool Vendor.
Learn more at www.cequence.ai.